Top Eight Grand Prix finish for Irish Bred Sambuca and Ireland’s Heike Holstein at Dortmund CDI4* Grand Prix Special.
Over the weekend, Irish National Dressage Champion Heike Holstein achieved an eighth-place finish in the CDI4* Grand Prix Special at Dortmund, Germany on Sunday, on her own, home bred mare Sambuca. Recently, Heike was crowned Irish National Dressage Champion for the 12th time in October 2018 and she has been competing with Sambuca internationally since July 2018 where they competed at Hickstead in the CDI2*. Sambuca was bred in Ireland by Heike, is by the Hanoverian stallion Samarant (Sandro Hit X Brentano II) and out of the Irish Sport Horse mare Astoria (Limmerick X Wendepunkt).
The pair have competed in CDI2*, 3* and made their 4* debut at Lier (BEL) earlier in March this year, taking 13th place in the Grand Prix Special. Heike and Sambuca have truly outshone their previous international results with their fantastic performance at Dortmund, taking eighth place with an impressive score of 66.404% against tough competition including FEI World Ranking Number One Isabell Werth, riding Emilio 107 (WESTF). The pair also had a great result on Friday achieving an international personal best of 68.2%; the first of two qualifying scores required for the 2019 FEI European Dressage Championships. At ten years old, Sambuca was also the youngest horse in the competition – the weekend’s results were a great achievement for a young, Irish-bred horse in a sphere where Ireland is very much up-and-coming in international competition, in terms of Irish horses and riders.
Sambuca (BESIE) – 2009 mare by Samarant (HANN) out of Astoria (ISH) by Limmerick (HOLST). Breeder, owner and rider: Heike Holstein.
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